Many different varieties of flexible and/or posable dolls and action figures have been developed over the years, mainly for the purposes of entertainment and display. Creation of a flexible or posable figure generally requires creation of a movable articulated body and limbs, ideally configured to retain whatever pose the figure is placed into. Furthermore, it is desirable that the figure be posable a large number of times without failure of the structure.
One class of posable figures includes an inner armature or skeleton including joints to recreate the articulation of a human skeleton, and a molded outer covering or body constructed of a flexible material that surrounds and is bonded or otherwise anchored to the inner armature. Examples of flexible doll toys and action figure toys are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 164,582, 280,986, 1,189,585, 1,551,250, 1,590,898, 1,189,585, 1,347,993, 1,590,898, 1,595,203, 1,626,533, 2,017,023, 2,073,723, 2,109,422, 2,129,421, 2,134,974, 2,174,932, 2,202,805, 2,392,024, 2,601,740, 2,669,063, 2,684,503, 3,055,119, 3,265,257, 3,277,601, 3,325,939, 3,277,601, 3,284,947, 3,325,939, 3,350,812, 3,394,490, 3,395,484, 3,555,723, 3,557,471, 3,624,691, 3,628,282, 3,699,714, 3,706,330, 3,716,942, 3,731,426, 3,837,008, 3,955,309, 4,123,872, 4,136,484, 4,197,358, 4,233,775, 4,279,099, 4,470,784, 4,738,647, 4,932,919, 4,954,118, 4,964,836, 4,968,282, 5,017,173, 5,257,873, 5,297,443, 5,474,485, 5,516,314, 5,620,352, 5,630,745, 5,664,983, 5,762,531, 5,800,242, 5,800,243, 5,989,658, 6,074,270, 6,110,002, 6,126,509, 6,139,328, 6,155,904, 6,170,721, 6,217,406, 6,220,922, 6,494,763, 6,685,533, 6,746,303, 6,773,327, 6,790,398, 6,805,606, 6,830,497, 6,929,527, 6,932,669, 7,479,054, 7,537,507, and 7,695,341, and in publications AT332178T, AU5143600A, BR0012818A, BRPI00128180A1, CA2372913A1, DE60029226D1, DE60029226T2, DE928751C, EP1200164A1, EP1200164A4, EP1200164B1, JP49-18954, JP49-18955, JP60-97067, JP61-94090, JP61-94091, JP61-94092, JP62-53686, JP62-164092, JP63-103685, JP05-168772A, JP11-221369, MXPA01011419A, US20050191936, US20080194176, US20100035510, WO9908764, WO0067869, WO0010665, WO0108776, and WO2004069361. The disclosures of all of these patents and publications are incorporated herein by reference.